Sweden

Home-Start Familjekontakt

Alingsås - Sweden

Our activities

In 2014 we were able to increase the hours of our coordinators Maritha Andersson and Åsa Andersson from 70-90%.

5 year celebration in Alingsås!

During the year we had the pleasure of celebrating Home-Start’s 5th birthday in Alingsås! We invited people to an ‘Open House’ where we had an exhibition of our Home-Start ‘start-up and development’ in Alingsås and a business description of Home-Start. Approximately 50 people attended! Two of Alingsås neighboring municipalities showed great interest and are investigating the possibility of starting Home-Start in their area. The evening was celebrated with invited guests at a very nice restaurant where we were served a real feast. Wenche H. Isachsen, National Director of Norway celebrated with us.

Volunteer training:

We have had two volunteer preparatory courses, which resulted in 13 new volunteers. The volunteers have been offered during the year, a Workshop by the CRC, which was held by a representative of Save the Children.

Families:

We have expanded our resources which has resulted in and increase in the number of families supported.

2013: Number of families receiving support / help: 10, Total number of children: 29

2014: The number of families that received support / help: 16, Total number of children: 48

We have seen an improvement in the wellbeing of the parents who sought our help during the year. Many are tired / depressed. More than half of the families that sought our help during the year stated psychological stress or fatigue syndrome / depression as the reason for our assistance. Also five families indicated that they have sick / disabled children, four of which were seeking contact with the child psychiatry or already have contact with a child psychiatrist.

As an addition to our Registration forms for families, we have added questions about violence and abuse in the family.

Economy / Organization

At the end of 2014 Home-Start was once again threatened by cutbacks because of savings requirements, but for now, things will remain unchanged.